Rockley

Puddleduck

Puddleduck

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Would anyone who has sent their horse to Rockley to rehab mind talking to me about it please?

My gelding was diagnosed with a tear in his DDFT near the navicular with some early signs of bone deterioration and collateral ligament damage from landing medial laterally. We're on week 9 of box rest with 10 minute in hand walks.

I've been in touch with Nic and read the vets briefing notes. My vet is happy to support this option if it's what I want to do. The alternative is bar shoe, rest and in hand walking with guarded prognosis. He's a Warmblood, purchased to do dressage and is gorgeous in looks, ability and personality.

My gut is telling me Rockley is the right way to go, I guess I just want to hear some first hand experiences from others to help me reassure myself that my gut is right.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have never sent a horse to Rockley myself, but Nic is a friend of mine and I have followed her progress from when we both went barefoot at the same time a decade ago. It is my photograph on the front cover of Feet First, her book.

On the strength of her successes, I have taken on two long term lame horses and rehabbed both here at home with total success.

I have helped several others locally rehab their own horses, again with great success, although one really can't take grass and is testing as allergic to it.

A horse I previously owned (the one on the book cover, in fact) went to Rockley on my recommendation, after having a very poor prognosis of return to work given by Leahurst. He was sound at eight weeks and has remained so ever since.

I've known one failure, and I would never again attempt to rehab one with a sharp spur on the navicular bone. I would instead turn it away for a year and hope the spur reabsorbed, and then rehab.

If you have any more questions I can help with, please ask.
 
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Again, not myself, but a FB friend did and her always lame pony that was basically going to need retired is now out competing in proper trec, endurance and whatever else that they want to do. She can not sing their praises highly enough.
 
My sister's horse went to Rockley several years ago after a navicular diagnosis and lameness that got progressively worse with bar shoes and remedial shoeing. He's not one of the best examples of a Rockley success story, because he has a lot of other problems that mean he is now more or less retired, including SI problems, arthritis in his hocks and we also had to deal with ulcers. He is the sort of horse where you fix one thing and then something else goes wrong! However, he came back from Rockley sound and happy an was doing incredibly well before his various other problems cropped up one by one and derailed his progress! He's now a glorified field ornament but, and this is important, he is a sound one! However, my sister and I went to last year's Rockley reunion and met a lot of horses and owners who have also been through the Rockley experience. All were horses who had been more or less written off as conventional treatment (i.e. remedial shoeing) just made things worse, yet there they were, sound and fit, going XC and doing dressage. Rocky really can do some wonderful things. It's not a miracle cure - Nic will give your horse a head start at Rockley but it will still require a lot of hard work and dedication from you as an owner. But I honestly believe that it could set you on the road to recovery better than any "conventional" treatment.
 
Mine went a few years ago (he erm may even be who equi is on about as we are friends on fb). Best thing I could have done for him tbh as his ridden future was looking rather rubbish (of the light work on bute with periods of lameness variety) had we continued down the remedial shoeing path we were on (I don't think the best farrier in the country could have improved his feet with shoes. He was on the verge of needing sedation to be shod anyway as was becoming a dangerous undertaking) His official issues were sidebone and some soft tissue changes (the vets were adamant he DIDN'T have navicular as no boney changes in that area but there was some mild soft tissue damage on MRI) but I think the ridiculous length of his toes / thinness of his soles may have been more of a cause for concern looking back. Anyhow I think there have been a few go there with similar issues to your horse with good success.

Anyhow yeah he does a bit of everything these days and has been to (and placed at) lvl 1 national TREC GB champs, done unaff sj and dressage, done some XC schooling (no reason he couldn't cruise around a smallish (maybe like 70/80cm?) ODE I just lack brave pants), the odd sponsored ride, been to the beach a few times and been out with our local bloodhounds as well as general hacking and schooling. Still doesn't like stones and uneven, rutted ground but doesn't stop us doing what we want to do.
 
My boy would be one of the horses either that had being to Rockley or would be going however funds don't allow me to send him. So I have been rehab bing him at home. At first he was doing very very well and his feet changing quickly then a problem cropped up which we have hopefully dealt with (lami) and now back on track hopefully. He is a typical tb no one ever thought he would 'handle' being barefoot. We're 6 months in :)
 
Again no personal experience but I follow Rockley principles, all of my horses are BF and self trimming. I totally believe it is the best situation for nearly any foot and I would go for it in your situation.
 
the vets were adamant he DIDN'T have navicular as no boney changes in that area
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This really annoys me because it's still being said to people today by their vets. Yet they've known for decades that bone changes don't correlate with lameness. There are sound horses with them. There are lame horses without them. The bone is very, very rarely the cause of the lameness, it's almost always a soft tissue injury somewhere.
 
Yes I sent mine four years ago. I started a blog at the time as a diary - link should be in my signature, if not google Buddy's barefoot adventure or search for Buddy on the Rockley blog :)

I was advised to PTS at the time as we couldn't get him right and there was significant damage for a 6yo horse. However, my vet saw him a few weeks ago and said he can't believe he told me to do that!

He was sound within 8 weeks and has been ever since. He's a competition horse and we've done BE,BS and now focus on BD with the aim (all being well) of getting up to PSG.

It's not an easy choice and isn't as simple as taking shoes off. You have to be commited, especially in the early days, and must educate yourself. It's harder if you have no support (or people who think you're insane/cruel) but the Rockley Rehabbers all stick together and are a great resource in those early days when you are finding your feet.

Sending him to Rockley was the best thing I could have done. I've still got my gorgeous boy and have made some incredible friends.

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ycbm said:
This really annoys me because it's still being said to people today by their vets. Yet they've known for decades that bone changes don't correlate with lameness. There are sound horses with them. There are lame horses without them. The bone is very, very rarely the cause of the lameness, it's almost always a soft tissue injury somewhere.
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Absolutely 100% agree with you and my experience to date totally supports this.

My horse went lame suddenly, 10 days before a BD regional and 2 days after he'd been to a training session and done some fabulous work. The X-rays showed some bone damage in the RF but both my vet and I agreed that this alone as the cause of the sudden onset of the lameness didn't seem right. We rested him to see if it was a bruise or tweak, I also started reading up on navicular syndrome.

After 2 weeks with no change we discussed options which included medicating the joint and seeing if that worked or going for an MRI to try and establish what was going on. I chose the MRI as my feeling was there was more to it than the bone and we headed to the RVC where all was revealed.

The consultant at the RVC said the bone damage itself was not significant in our case as its minimal. Our problem is that the tendon tear although small is being irritated by an inflamed navicular bursa and some granulated scar tissue and this what's causing the pain and lameness
 
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ycbm said:
This really annoys me because it's still being said to people today by their vets. Yet they've known for decades that bone changes don't correlate with lameness. There are sound horses with them. There are lame horses without them. The bone is very, very rarely the cause of the lameness, it's almost always a soft tissue injury somewhere.
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Yeah my referral vet was a bit of an arrogant whatsit (forum filters don't allow swearing I'm guessing?) I didn't really 100% agree with diagnosis at the time and retrospectively I still don't think the issues he focussed on (sidebone) were the ones in need of addressing / the main cause of lameness
 
I read the Rockley blog, it inspires me to keep going. OP I think its a no brainer if you can get them there and can support them as BF when they get home you loose nothing but gain so much. I had a wobble on Sunday hacking out but I know in the long term taking my boy BF is the best for him. Good luck
 
Rockley is a great kickstarter for barefoot rehab- it gives you time to research and make adjustments to your feed and routine as needed. I was in the US when my mare became lame and we kept adding mechanics to her shoeing regime. Ultimately they told me I could MAYBE get another year out of her, and then my farrier copped an attitude at me so I said "screw it, don't bother putting shoes back on!"

Six months later I was a changed horse owner, and a year on my horse is a better mover, sweeter, easier to deal with animal than she's ever been. Whether that's because she's no longer living with low-grade pain, or because I spent a LOT of time just grooming and hand walking in the beginning, I couldn't say. But she's a different animal.

Feel free to PM if you want any tips or just to vent- a lady trimmer held my hand SO much in the early days and the best way I can thank her is by paying it forward. :)
 
My horse was at Rockley earlier this year. He is 6 months barefoot and is doing incredibly well. He is now sound too. He had damage to navicular bone and some soft tissue damage ( I decided not to MRI and sent to Rockley) though not sure what.
He did initially have heart bar shoes and coffin joint was medicated, he was sound for less than 2 weeks. My vet that referred him to Rockley was out to see him last week and she was delighted to see us returning from a ride out. Rockley was the best thing for him. Good luck
 
I visited rockley after having a foot ddft injury in my horse. Decided to try at home first, that was back in 2012, he's still sound and in full work. My friend had the same diagnosis with her tb late last year, hers went to rockley, is now sound and competing bd.
 
Mine also went to Rockley this year with ddft tears in both fronts, one worse than the other. He spent 9 weeks in wedges on box rest with no improvement so i was given options of surgery or rockley, suggested by me initially. I think vets can be reluctant to suggest bf and rockley as it doesn't offer the quick fix most people want these days.

He spent 12 weeks there and came back much happier and sounder, although not perfect. With the help of a great trimmer who looked at his movement (his feet haven't been touched since last December when he had the last wedges on) and a brilliant instructor to make him work straight and correctly he is going better than he has done for years.

You can do it without rockley, I certainly would do now I've got a good trimmer, but it does give you a kick start and for me meant I wasn't doing box rest through winter which I find hard!
 
If your insurance will pay for yours to go to Rockley, I would absolutely do that. Mine wouldn't, so I have had to do it all at home - mine had caudal hoof pain and changes to the navicular bone.

I chose not to go down the bar shoe/wedges/frog support route, we had shoes off in June, its a lot of work doing it from home, I do 'walk out' hacks with him at least three to four times a week and its hilly around here and the walks are around 7/8 km each! Having said that, we are now doing a couple of no booted barefoot walks and if it wasn't for a shoulder issue we had going on we would be doing more than a 10 minute bareback ride each time we go out.

I feel I have made absolutely the right decision - he doesn't trip at all anymore. Had he gone to Rockley with their much better facilities we would have got there faster, but as insurance wouldn't cover it, didn't have a spare £3k kicking around so at home it was!!
 
Thank you everyone who replied.
Today we had our review with the vet. He trotted up sound ��
Still a long road ahead to let him heal and rehab, tomorrow the shoes come off and we'll get started.
My vet seems to be a closet barefoot supporter, he is totally happy with my choice and has not tried to dissuade me or put forward a case for remedial shoes.
In fact his parting words today were "it's how we used to manage feet.....whip the shoes off and give them a break, kept the hunters sound......"
 
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